Overview
- NHS Blood and Transplant is funding a national roll-out of the double-matching service across England with a £1.37 million investment and will work with other UK blood services to supply matched units.
- The decision follows a London pilot at Hammersmith Hospital and the Royal Free that showed closer HLA matching between transfused blood and patients reduced markers linked to later transplant rejection.
- Doctors explain that some kidney patients form HLA antibodies after transfusions or prior transplants, and those antibodies can attack a donated kidney and cause it to fail.
- About two in five kidney transplant patients need blood transfusions around surgery, and NHSBT says the new service could prevent roughly 100 transplant rejections a year and ease the path for highly sensitised patients.
- The change could shorten waiting times and lower the chance of future sensitisation, but it will require closer coordination between transfusion services and transplant teams to link blood supplies to individual transplant needs.